The Studio Source.com

Image by Gyorgy Kovacs

A view from the creative front line
I just spent four days in an athletic facility with air so dry you could load in on Thursday with a bunch of grapes, and load out on Sunday with raisins.

It was a Christmas craft retail show, and I was there with my other business (the one I don’t talk about, but that’s a story for another day).

Both Friday and Saturday traffic looked like a Sunday, which is to say customer numbers were down substantially.

There was the inevitable knee-jerk reaction from some exhibitors.

“I’m not doing this show next year.”

“The venue should be advertising.”

The venue did advertise. That wasn’t the problem.

Shopping patterns have changed. But that’s not enough to kill a show.

From where I stand, as a designer, maker and marketing specialist, the extinction of the retail show is by no means inevitable.

The buying environment has changed
The decrease in customer traffic wasn’t sudden. I watched it happen over several years, worsened by the recession of 2008. The middle class is shrinking, and the slow economic recovery has left its mark.

A few exhibitors told me sales were down across the board, for all their shows. That’s not surprising, given the current economic climate. The number I heard more than once was 25%—ironically, the same amount as the increase Amazon.com boasted for the same weekend as the show I attended.

Consumers haven’t stopped buying.

A couple of customers told me the malls were packed on the weekend. Canadian retailers have jumped on the Black Friday sale bandwagon, minus the holiday—here in Canada, Thanksgiving is in early October.

Eyeing the obvious villains 
We’d like to tell ourselves the big retailers, with their ability to slash prices and sway consumers with big advertising budgets are to blame. It would be easy to attribute the craft show decline to online shopping.

When you’re bone weary and stressed because sales are down, the temptation to point the finger at show organizers for not doing enough to get customers into the building is nearly irresistible.

To some extent, it’s all of these things.

And it’s none of them.

There are elements in the buying environment you can’t control (so stop tearing your hair out)
You can’t control the economy.

You can’t control the carnival side show otherwise known as the stock market, and the effect it has on consumer confidence.

You can’t tone down hysterical media headlines about the state of our money, or share a little common sense with the people who don’t look past them.

What you can control is your marketing.

It’s time for artists and craftspeople to raise the bar on marketing
If you did a poll of the 100-plus exhibitors, you’d see a pattern emerge.

Many of them put a notice on their website with their show dates and hoped customers would notice.

Some don’t have a website at all. Or a blog, or an email newsletter, or paper newsletter.

They weren’t thinking about how important those things have become.

Up until very recently, show organizers could make their announcements, buy newspaper space, book television spots, put up posters, and the customers would come.

It’s not enough anymore.

You can’t rely on the venue to reach your people for you. You never should have, but now that expectation has become completely unrealistic.

The marketing wake-up call
There has never been more competition for customer attention. People are overscheduled and distracted.

If you want to keep their eyes on you, to remind them the mall isn’t the only place to shop, you have to draw them in. You have to stay connected, and there have never been more opportunities for you to do it.

Social media, blogs, email newsletters, powered by free or low-cost technology all allow you to meet your people, face to virtual face, without depending on shows, special events or seasons.

It’s a necessary evolution in the profession of creativity, for those people who want to put the things they make directly into the hands of the people who buy them.

The change will be painful for a lot of artists and craftspeople.

We assume Millenials are digital natives, hard-wired into social media, but many of them are as reluctant to do their marketing as Gen Xers or the Baby Boomers. Anyone who’s been in the business for more than half a dozen years would have enjoyed the days when shows still had good traffic without a whole lot of effort.

The playing field is more level than you think
You can’t force customers to stay away from the mall. But the mall can’t force customers to stay away from you.

Talk to your people. Not just random people who might be willing to pay the fee at the gate, talk to your people.

Talk to them, not waving sale signs and shouting sales pitches, but as one real person to another. Yes you’re selling, but you’re still you.

Do your best work. Show it off.

They won’t forget about you when it counts.

(Next time I’ll talk about another big reason customers stop going to shows. It’s a crucial element in marketing, and another big piece of your business you can control.)

About the author: Stacey Cornelius is a writer and artist who believes successful creative ventures run far deeper than snazzy sales pitches. She helps empower artists, designers, writers and craftspeople to do their best work and show it to the world. Sign up for her free, jargon-busting foundation marketing email class right here. For high-speed inspiration, follow Stacey on Twitter.